July 06, 2017
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Midwest Health Care Network signed a collaborative agreement with the Air Force
Medical Operations Agency, to provide five military treatment facilities with
access to the VA’s Tele-ICU capabilities, the VA announced this week.
The agreement covers Air Force patients in Las
Vegas; Hampton, Virginia; Biloxi, Mississippi; Dayton, Ohio; and Anchorage,
Alaska and is available through the VA’s centralized support center in
Minneapolis.
The Tele-ICU telehealth program provides
electronic access to board-certified doctors and critical care nurses using
live audio and video feed, electronic monitoring, chart review and
consultations. Officials said the doctors can prescribe medications, order
tests and procedures, diagnose and discuss healthcare with patients and family.
Remote, real-time monitoring and tracking of
critically ill patients is one of the biggest goals of the project, as VA
Secretary Dr. David Shulkin hopes to improve care quality and patient outcomes
through the tool.
“Tele-ICU is more than just a way of providing
remote care,” said Shulkin in a statement. “It improves the quality of care,
decreases costs by supporting evidence-based practices and it improves patient
outcomes through decreased ventilator days, ventilator-associated pneumonias
and reduced lengths of stay.”
The program is part of the 2015 U.S.
Department of Defense - VA Health Care Sharing Incentive Fund, which will
provide patients in the five locations with the VA’s Tele-ICU
tools. It’s the first of what Shulkin hopes is one of many
partnerships with the DoD.
Under Shulkin’s leadership, the VA has been
steadily working on modernizing the VA and its healthcare. Shulkin has
continuously stressed the need for not only public-private partnerships to
accomplish this, but also partnerships with other government agencies -- like
the DoD.
“Collaborative partnerships, such as this
agreement with VA, help us provide the best possible care to our service
members, military family members and retirees who receive health care through
the Department of Defense,” said Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Health Affairs, Dr. David Smith.
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